13 March 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

CONTEMPORARY ART LESSONS IN NAVARRA

From the eighteenth-century tradition to nineteenth-century realism: painting in the nineteenth century

Dr. Ignacio J. Urricelqui Pacho.
Chairof Navarrese Heritage and Art

The lectureproposed an analysis of the painting produced from the end of the 18th century to the last quarter of the 19th century, delving into the movements and trends that had the greatest presence in Navarre. During the last third of the seventeenth century, when the academic language promoted by the Royal Academy of Fine and Noble Arts of San Fernando, the Kingdom witnessed some interesting works that served to renew, albeit partially, the local artistic environment. Rococo, with its elegance and colourfulness of form and colour, was present in paintings such as those by Pedro Antonio de Rada in Pamplona and, even more so, by Luis Paret y Alcázar in Viana. The active presence of the Corellan Antonio González at Court, who for some years headed the drawing section of the San Fernando Academy, did not encourage painting activity in his native land.

While local painters such as Diego Díaz del Valle of Cascantino were using a retarded language in paintings of discreet quality, the Diputación del Reino and prominent members of the local nobility were consuming a select range of paintings commissioned by the Court at the turn of the century. The Marquis of San Adrián was portrayed by Francisco de Goya in 1804, while the Diputación would demand interesting examples of royal portraiture during the first third of the century, with works by Goya himself, Madrazo, Esquivel and Vicente López. The Church also contributed to this through outstanding paintings such as the portrait of Bishop Leonardo Severo Andriani, signed by Vicente López around 1848. Private clients, particularly the nobility, demanded paintings, not only portraits but also landscapes and genre scenes by foreign firms. More discreet in this respect was the clientele of local councils, which generally opted for local artists of limited quality.
 

Francisco de Goya, Portrait of the Marquis of San Adrián, 1804. Museum of Navarre.

En el período romántico se impulsó en Pamplona una Academia municipal de Dibujo que, regentada por el soriano Miguel Sanz y Benito, constituyó un punto de referencia en la formación artística local. No obstante, la falta de implicación institucional en la formación de los artistas, de una clientela sólida y de una crítica que se comprometiera activamente, limitaron los efectos de este proceso. Esta situación explica que cuando en 1860 la Diputación del Reino decidió acometer la decoración del Salón del Trono del Palacio provincial, aprovechando el anuncio de visita de la reina Isabel II para el año siguiente, los encargos pictóricos recayeran en autores foráneos –Alejandro Ferrant, Joaquín Espalter, Francisco Aznar, Francisco Mendoza y Constancio Corona-. Tan sólo un navarro, Miguel Martín Azparren, participó en el proyecto ejecutando las pinturas del techo, en un lenguaje nazarenista, mientras que el resto de pintores se ocuparían de realizar las escenas históricas y la galería de retratos de los reyes de Navarra que completaban el programa, inspirado todo él en las pasadas glorias del antiguo Reino de Navarra. La pintura de historia, género que copó el panorama oficial de la pintura en España durante la segunda mitad de la centuria, no tendría sin embargo especial auge en Navarra.

Miguel Martín Azparren, Paintings on the ceiling of the Throne Room (detail), 1860. Provincial Palace

In the last quarter of the century, coinciding with a greater boom in pictorial realism and a greater trivialisation of the subjects treated, Navarre witnessed the presence of several painters interested in depicting everyday themes with a realistic character and in the anecdotal nature of the scenes. Painters such as Eduardo Carceller, Inocencio García Asarta and Nicolás Esparza worked in this direction, renewing the panorama of local painting and updating it to a certain extent in relation to the national scene.

Salustiano Asenjo, Portrait of Pablo Sarasate, 1884. Pamplona City Council